Japan through Folktales and Activities: A Unit for Kindergarten.

This report describes an intervention to improve American kindergarten children's understanding of Japanese culture. The intervention consisted of a curriculum unit presented in a kindergarten class of 14 American and 7 Japanese children in Brookline, Massachusetts. Before and after the intervention, the American children's knowledge of Japanese culture was assessed in an interview. Children were presented with five traditional Japanese folktales in English translation. Children were also exposed to Japanese culture through nonfiction books, videos, films, and Japanese children's magazines. Children engaged in such activities as making fans and experimenting with calligraphy, and other activities that focused on housing, food, holidays, and children's activities in Japan. The curriculum was presented in 26 lessons over a 3-month period. As a result of the intervention, American children's responses that indicated a knowledge of Japanese culture rose from a total of 19 in preintervention interviews to 399 in postintervention interviews. A 28-item reference list is provided. Appendices include an annotated bibliography of folktales, nonfiction books, films, and videocassettes; detailed lesson plans for the 26 lessons in the curriculum; sample pre- and post-intervention interviews; and tables of data derived from the interviews. (BC)